Success Stories

SVSLOPE® 3D applied to Tailings Impoundment Facility

20 February 2017

February 20, 2017

Tierra group recently made use of the 3D capabilities of the SVSLOPE® software to perform an analysis of the corner of an Earth Dam retaining structure. The use of 2D analysis tools were difficult in this scenario because of several issues. Firstly, the structure of a corner or a turn in the Earth dam needed to be incorporated into the analysis. There is also the difficulty of varying geo-strata beneath the foundation of the engineered earth dam structure. The combination of these two aspects made 2D analysis extremely difficult.

Therefore, 3D analysis was performed using the 3D SVSLOPE® software package. The data was first imported into the SVDESIGNER™ package in order to manage all the pinch-outs from the collected real-world data. SVDESIGNER™ successfully helped the team in developing a properly formed 3D conceptual model of the site. With this 3D model formed the analysis of the stability portion of the dam could proceed in the SVSLOPE® software. Tierra group was able to identify the slip direction close to the corner which produced the minimum factor of safety by using the orientation analysis in SVSLOPE®. The resulting analysis also highlighted the interplay between the engineered structure and the geo-strata in the foundation which had the potential to affect the factor of safety calculation in 3D.

Tierra Group was in need of a 3D slope stability analysis to solve a complex slope stability project in highly variable soil conditions. We were able to quickly develop the conceptual 3D model with SVDESIGNER™ and SVSLOPE® using topographic data, borehole logs, and 2D geologic cross-sections. Once the conceptual model was built, Tierra Group was able to analyze multiple potential failure locations and orientations in excellent time. The SoilVision team responded quickly to questions and spent as much time as was necessary to help. We highly recommend this software for analyzing similar projects."

Justin Knudsen, P.E. Senior Civil/Geotechnical Engineer, Tierra Group

If you are interested in analysis similar to this please contact Tierra Group.

Testimonials

"I would like to thank you for all the support and the interest that I got from your team regarding this matter. I was able to successfully finish my project with the help of your technical support and managed to graduate achieving a high grade on the project I did. The software is extremely helpful and wasn't complicated and I look forward to future for more work and experience with your software. Thank you for your help and support."

Abdul Hadi Ahmad Al Klaib

Student at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

"I have been using SoilVision's SVOFFICE™ software for research and training purposes for a number of years now. Myself and my colleagues have developed a number of training modules in this software, and have been using these to teach limit equilibrium and flow modeling to undergraduate students in the civil, environmental and mining engineering streams.

In my opinion, this software is easy to learn and fun to use. The built-in tutorials are sufficient to get one started. With these tutorials, my students were generally able to complete their analyses with minimal involvement on my side.

Based on my own experience, it takes around a month of full-time use to become reasonably competent with the software (provided that one understands the theoretical underpinnings of this type of analysis) - a short learning curve, compared to other products of similar complexity. The interface is intuitive enough for me to figure out things on my own, and I rarely had the need to ask for help.

I don't generally like praising anything excessively, and I don't post particularly glowing reviews for anything. Having said that, I must mention the SoilVision support. At some point during my research, I was conducting a number of replication studies for my thesis. In that period, I must have emailed SoilVision's support anywhere from 2 to 5 times a day, with fairly complex (and sometimes very dumb) questions. I always got a response by the end of the day, and a resolution within a couple days at most. In a number of urgent cases (such as during a tutorial session with a classroom of students) I called them directly on the phone and, with senior product engineers involved, had the issue addressed in minutes."

Elena Zabolotnii, PEng MEng

PhD Candidate, Geotechnical Engineering at University of Alberta

"We have allowed our students the choice of using multiple Geotechnical software suites in our Dam Design and other Geotechnical courses. Our students consistently gravitate towards SoilVision software as being the most modern and user-friendly."

Gilson Gitirana Jr.

Associate Professor at Federal University of Goiás

"I've been a geotechnical engineer for more than 25 years and SoilVision has the best tech support I have ever worked with. I truly appreciate their patience and help over the past year."

Donald Tharp

Principal Engineer at Ninyo & Moore

"Peter Brett Associates have been looking to update our existing slope stability software over the last year. After extensive research and trials, SVSLOPE® developed by SoilVision Systems Ltd. was found to meet all our existing and future design requirements. Its ease of use for modeling simple as well as complex geological and geometrical problems was a critical factor in our assessment as well as the incorporation of design to the Eurocodes. Their customer support has been faultless and their willingness to develop the software to meet our own specific design requirements is a most gratifying added bonus."

"We love the fact that SVSLOPE® is part of an integrated suite of software and that, if required, 3D analysis can be undertaken. We would recommend this product to other geotechnical consulting firms."

Asmi Desai

Principal Engineer at Peter Brett Associates LLP

"We have been using SVSLOPE® and SVFLUX™ for the past year and have found them to be efficient and productive engineering tools which have allowed us to offer our services in an efficient manner. The capability of automated increased discretization of the mesh is an absolute benefit to our modeling, reducing time and effort. We have found the software quick and easy for our engineers to train and utilize. I would recommend this product to other geotechnical consulting firms."

Barry L. Carlson, P.E.

President at InTerraLogic

"The software is well documented and comes with number of useful example models. We were able to quickly begin creating models after a short review of the user interface and going through the available on-line webinars. The software offers solid benefits of less conservatism and the ability to model real geometry."

Steven A. Haire, P.E.

Chief Geotechnical Engineer at Ninyo & Moore

"This new software for stability analysis includes a number of state-of-the-art options for probabilistic slope stability analysis. This feature, combined with comprehensive deterministic analyses, will provide new opportunities to build confidence in the results of a site-specific analysis.”

Prof. Dirk van Zyl, Ph.D., P.E.

Professor of Mine Life Cycle Systems at University of British Columbia

"I'm excited to see the release of this new and innovative product. I look forward to and encourage the application of this software on additional geotechnical projects.”

Prof. Ward Wilson, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Mining Chair at University of British Columbia

"In consulting engineering practice, I am increasingly made aware of the important and beneficial role that modeling the unsaturated soil zone can play in providing the client with the best possible engineered solution. The SoilVision software has made it possible to readily estimate and incorporate unsaturated soil properties into the modeling of saturated / unsaturated soil systems.”

Del Fredlund, O.C., Ph.D., P.Eng.

Senior Project Engineer at Golder Associates

"The use of SVSLOPE® software as part of a research project on clay slopes under seismic conditions with the Université de Sherbrooke has been incredibly easy and effective. The continuation of this research with SoilVision is promising, with technical support, which was present at the right time, as well as a passionate geotechnical team supporting the project.”